page_title: History of the Jews in Belgium
section_title: Holocaust
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Jews in Belgium / History / Holocaust
caption_attribution_description: English: what is generally known as the Brussels (or Belgian) Holocaust Memorial, more formally as the: National Monument to the Jewish Martyrs of Belgium Mémorial National aux Martyrs Juifs de Belgique Nationaal Gedenkteken der Joodse Martelaren van België More than twenty thousand names of Jewish dead are inscribed on the walls here, Jewish victims from all around Belgium, some of whom were killed on Belgian territory, but many of whom were shipped off to the death camps in the East for their extermination. Walon: Nationaal Gedenkteken der Joodse Martelaren van België Français&#160;: Mémorial National aux Martyrs Juifs de Belgique
context_page_description: The history of the Jews in Belgium goes back to the 1st century CE until today. The Jewish community numbered 66,000 on the eve of the Second World War but, after the war and the Holocaust, is now less than half that number.
  Today, Belgium is home to more than 30,000 Jews, of whom two-thirds live in Antwerp.
context_section_description: Prior to the Second World War, and its peak, the Jewish community of Belgium consisted of roughly 70,000 Jews (35,000 resided in Antwerp and 25,000 in Brussels). About 22,000 Jews at that time were German Jewish refugees. Only 6% of the Jewish population were of Belgian nationality. Belgium was occupied by Nazi Germany between May 1940 and September 1944, and anti-Semitic policies were adopted throughout Belgium, even though popular resistance in some cities hindered their full application.  Belgian local police rounded up Jews, on three occasions in Antwerp, assisting the German in fulfilling their murderous policy towards the Jews. Approximately 45% of the Belgian Jews (25.484 people) were deported to concentration camps from Dossin Barracks in Mechelen, primarily to Auschwitz. Only 1,200 of the deportees survived the war. The Committee for Jewish Defence, which worked with the national resistance movement Front de l'Indépendance, was the largest Jewish defence movement in Belgium during the war. Some Belgian Jews who fled Belgium in 1940 were deported on transports from Drancy, France. A total of 28,900 Belgian Jews perished between 1942 and 1945. Belgium was the only occupied country in which a transport (Train XX) was halted to give deportees a chance to escape.
  The National Monument to the Jewish Martyrs of Belgium is in Brussels. More than twenty thousand names of  Belgian Jewish victims are inscribed on the walls of the Monument, some of whom were killed on Belgian territory, but many of whom were shipped off to the death camps and executed in the East.
caption: National Monument to the Jewish Martyrs of Belgium, in Brussels
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